


UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. 



EARLY CALLED: 



GIFT FOR BEREAVED PARENTS. 



REV. WILLIAM H. LEWIS. 




NEW YORK: 
PUBLISHED BY DANIEL DANA, Jr., 



No. 20 JOHN-STREET. 



1844. 



WHr7*{s/6 w /fog W^t M/ €; 







<£-/rz~ 



?^ 






V^4l 






0*1 



%~~"/j — n $ 



Entered according to the Act of Congress, in the year 1843, 

By WILLIAM H. LEWIS, 

in the Clerk's Office of the District Court for the Southern District of 

New York. 



<r§ 



THE EARLY CALLED. 



For Christian Parents while they mourn 
Their treasured hopes, just born, baptized, and gone. 

Keblk. 



THE INNOCENTS' DAY. 

THE COLLECT. 

O Almighty God, who out of the mouths 
of babes and sucklings hast ordained 
strength, and madest infants to glorify 
thee by their deaths : mortify and kill all 
vices in us, and so strengthen us by thy 
grace, that by the innocency of our lives, 
and constancy of our faith even unto death, 
we may glorify thy holy name, through Je- 
sus Christ our Lord. Amen. 



THE EARLY CALLED. 



CHAPTER I. 

DISREGARD OF THE CLAIMS OF CHILDREN. 

" And they brought young children to him, that he 
should touch them ; and his disciples rebuked those that 
brought them."— St. Mark, 10 : 13. 

The gospel of Christ stoops to humanity 
in its lowest forms, to elevate and ennoble 
them. The little infant, in the midst of 
generations of myriads, and in comparison 
with the mighty, may seem but as a speck 
upon the ocean, scarcely worthy of arrest- 
ing the eye for a moment; but, when 
viewed through the medium of Christian- 
ity, that speck becomes an object of infi- 
nite worth and interest. The little one, 



THE EARLY CALLED. 



as well as the greatest, is an heir of im- 
mortality ; upon its soul the blood of sprink- 
ling as freely falls ; around it angels min- 
ister ; and, for its released spirit, heaven 
opens as willingly as for the martyr or 
apostle. Where, then, the mighty differ- 
ence between the nursling and the man ? 
In all but that adventitious greatness 
which is of mere earthly origin — in nearly 
all the gifts of God, the infant of days is 
upon an equality with the man of years. 
And, especially, if to the common gifts of 
creation, redemption, and immortality, God 
add the renewing of the Spirit, and upon 
the soul of a child enstamp the image of 
Christ Jesus, there is still less difference. 
The infant, in that case, dying in infancy, 
" dies an hundred years old," as fully and 
as happily securing the end of existence 
as he who measures out a century. 

For its equalizing tendency the gospel 
is worthy of our love. Sin has raised a 
thousand distinctions, not, like the pleasing 



THE EARLY CALLED. 9 

change of valley and hill, to give variety, 
but, like the walls of cities, to separate man 
from man, and to cherish pride and selfish- 
ness ; but Christianity seeks to do them all 
away. It enters the abode of poverty, and 
elevates its inmates by the assurance that 
Jesus, with the world at his disposal, chose a 
condition so lowly that he had not a place 
where to lay his head. It strips wealth of 
its fancied superiority, by showing that a 
beggar at the gate may be exalted above 
us in all that constitutes true wealth. It 
gives to the afflicted a compensative boon, 
which causes them " to rejoice in tribula- 
tion." It suffers not the look of contempt 
towards the slave, the idolater, or the most 
degraded specimen of humanity. It en- 
ters the family circle, and assures us, that 
around that cradle where no human sym- 
pathies but those of parents and kindred 
cluster, are the ministering spirits of heav- 
en, and upon it the blessing of the Re- 
deemer. It stands by the infant's grave ; 



10 THE EARLY CALLED, 

and when the world passes on, forgetful 
that the little handful of ashes was once 
animate, and when the huge wave of ob- 
livion seems about to roll over it and bury 
it forever, it stills the parent's heart with 
the assurance that that mound shall not 
be buried from God's remembrance, nor 
that form beneath forgotten 'by him, but 
that the baby sleeper shall be called forth 
fair and glorious as any of the myriads 
by which it was unheeded or unknown. 
Adored be that God, who has so equalized 
infancy with maturer years, and put into 
the scale with its helplessness, its friend- 
lessness, its obscurity in life, its grave in 
death, the most unnoted of all objects, save 
while parental affection survives as its 
monument, those comforting assurances 
which the gospel reveals. 

In its care for little ones, Christ's religion 
differs from every other. Heathenism 
passed them by, without affording a god 
among ten thousand deities as their pro- 



THE EARLY CALLED. 11 

tector, though setting up many a grim 
image to which they were sacrificed. 
Philosophy never sought them for its 
schools ; for its proud aspiring was to win 
the applause of the enlightened, not to be 
a teacher of babes. Infidelity has its pon- 
derous tomes for the learned, and its popu- 
lar tracts for the unlearned, but no cate- 
chisms for childhood. And errorists of 
every grade among nominal Christians, 
just in proportion as they have wandered 
from the truth, contemn infancy ; so that, in 
the good providence of God, as a general 
rule, those who are most evangelical in 
doctrine and spirit have the greatest re- 
gard for this neglected age, and its mould- 
ing and control most exclusively in their 
hands. Where the lambs are most faith- 
fully cared for, there is the true fold of 
Christ. 

Among the best Christians and members 
of the true fold of Christ, there is too 
much indeed of this heathenish neglect of 



12 THE EARLY CALLED. 

childhood. It is seen in the slighted sac- 
rament of infant baptism. It is seen in 
the carelessness with which early religious 
education is conducted. And, what is more 
to our present purpose, it is seen in the 
fact, that so little consideration is given to 
the glorious dealings of God in the death 
of infants. Funeral sermons are preached 
for the worldly great, and for the servants 
of God ; thousands of volumes are poured 
forth from the press upon the various trials 
of life, and the consolations peculiar to 
each ; but where shall the bereaved parent 
lay his hand upon a volume which will 
show him how God perfects his praise in 
the removal of so many babes and suck- 
lings to glory, or which shall sooth his 
his heart with divine consolations when 
called to mourn over blighted blossoms of 
hope, or seek to deepen the lesson of profit 
which God would convey ? Many a Ra- 
chel has wept over her children because 
they were not ; and as it was only a child 



THE EARLY CALLED, 13 

that had died, it has seemed to many as if 
few words of comfort were needed, few 
tears of sympathy demanded. Surely this 
is a mistake. God calls away more than 
one half of the human race before they 
have arrived at the age of accountability,* 
severing, thereby, ties the most tender, and 
laying open hearts in their gentlest, aptest 
mood, to receive mingled instruction and 
consolation. There must be some glorious 
and special design in this. To seek it out, 
to speak to bereaved parents mourning 
over the graves of their children, and 
show them what comfort they may find, 

* " The yearly bills of mortality in and near London, 
show that more than one third part of the race of man 
die before the age of two years, and nearly half, before 
five. And let it be remembered, lest it should be thought 
more die there than the usual proportion for want of air, 
and the conveniences of life, that among the savage na- 
tions of Asia, Africa, and America, more of these young 
creatures perish for want of care, or of skill in their dis- 
eases, or by the hands of their parents ; so that, take all 
mankind together, the bills of mortality in London may 
furnish a pretty just calculation in the matter." — Dr. 
Watts. 



14 THE EARLY CALLED. 

what profit gain, and to embody reflections 
suited to them in their bereavement, are 
objects for which the writer would ask 
their attention and God's blessing. 



THE EARLY CALLED. 15 



CHAPTER II. 

SALVATION OF DEPARTED INFANTS. 

" For of such is the kingdom of God." — St. Mark, 
10: 14. 

The first and most important inquiry in 
a subject of this nature, is, whether infants, 
dying in infancy, are saved ? 

And here we rest our eyes at once on that 
precious promise, " Of such is the kingdom 
of God." If it be urged that this is spo- 
ken, not of children, but of such as resem- 
ble them, we may answer that children on- 
ly are named, without any thing in the con- 
text to show a reference to others ; and be- 
sides, if those who resemble them shall be 
saved, much more the originals themselves. 
Calvin says, "that this text includes chil- 
dren themselves, and those who resemble 



16 THE EARLY CALLED. 

them ;" which is undoubtedly a true inter- 
pretation, though the former part of it is 
the direct meaning, and the latter an in- 
ference from this and other passages of 
Scripture. We have here, then, one ex- 
plicit assertion that the kingdom of heav- 
en is composed in part of little children. 
Whether the kingdom of heaven mean the 
Church on earth, or in glory, is a matter 
of no consequence, since those whom Christ 
pronounces admissible to the Church mili- 
tant, will be admitted to the Church triumph- 
ant. 

And this leads to a further proof of the 
salvation of infants, since under the Old 
and New dispensations they were by God 
himself admitted to the privileges of church 
membership, — in the Jewish at eight days 
old, and in the Christian without regard to 
age. Adults are received only on a pro- 
fession of such faith and repentance as are 
supposed sufficient unto salvation ; and as 
salvation is the great end of admission, 



THE EARLY CALLED. 17 

and as all infants are admitted without 
faith and repentance, it follows that they 
are considered as salvable without them. 

Our Lord, again, took children up in his 
arms and blessed them. His blessing was 
authoritative, and they were capable of re- 
ceiving it. He would not have bestowed 
it upon such as were then fit only for anni- 
hilation or reprobation. And we may say 
with Balak, "I wot that he whom thou 
blessest, is blessed." 

Why should any have imagined that in- 
fants will be punished in a future state 1 
Will it be for their own sins ? They have 
none. Will it be for Adam's ? God has de- 
clared that he will not, in another world, 
visit the iniquity of the father upon the son. 
There could not be with them a worm that 
never dieth, for their consciences are not 
burdened with sin. It could not be said to 
thern, as to the rich man in the parable, 
" Son, remember," for memory has no load 
of guilt to awaken remorse. Christ died for 
2* 



18 THE EARLY CALLED. 

all, and is in some sense declared in Scripture 
to be the Saviour of all men ; but there is 
no conceivable sense in which this can be 
true of departed infants, unless they are 
eternally saved by him. The risen dead 
shall be judged out of the things which are 
written against them in God's books of 
remembrance, and of his law ; but from 
what books shall infants be judged ? " This 
is the condemnation, that light is come in- 
to the world, and men loved darkness 
rather than light, because their deeds were 
evil." If the sin cannot be predicated of 
them, may we not hope they will escape 
the condemnation ? With such proofs be- 
fore us, we may consider it as certain 
truth, that all dying in infancy will be 
saved. No gloomy dream of annihilation 
need disturb our minds ; no fear lest they 
should not be included in the decree of 
election ; no dread lest our unbelief should 
be visited upon them ; no apprehension of 
a distinction between the children of be- 



THE EARLY CALLED. 19 

iieving and unbelieving parents, since of 
all it is said, " of such is the kingdom of 
heaven," and for all the sacraments of 
circumcision and baptism were appointed. 
So that death assuredly reaps for the 
garners of heaven the whole harvest of 
those dying before the age of accountabil- 
ity. As the owner of a garden which 
must soon be thrown open to beasts of 
every kind, foreseeing how few of his 
plants will escape, prefers removing some 
which are just in the bud to nurture them 
in a securer place ; so God, grieved at the 
foresight of sin's devastating work, takes 
8-way many an infant blossom to expand 
in heaven. Or, perhaps, we may consider 
children as those who are infallibly given 
to Christ as the reward of his sufferings, 
in whom he shall see of the travail of his 
soul and be satisfied, though all others 
should reject the offer of life. 

In confirmation of the Scripture doctrine, 
we may mention the general belief of the 



20 THE EARLY CALLED. 

Church in all ages. St. Chrysostom speaks 
of the infants slain at Bethlehem, "as all 
borne away to a waveless harbor.'* And 
the Church in all ages has looked upon these 
slaughtered infants as martyrs for Christ, 
setting apart a day in commemoration of 
them, and, of course, regarding them as 
saved. Irenaeus says, " Christ came to save 
all persons by himself. Therefore, he went 
through all ages ; and for infants became 
an infant, that he might sanctify infants ; 
and for little ones, became a little one, 
that he might sanctify those of that age." 
Our Church in her Homilies says, " that in- 
fants being baptized, and dying in their in- 
fancy, are by Christ's sacrifice washed from 
their sins, brought to God's favor, and made 
his children, and inheritors of the kingdom 
of heaven." Watson, in his Theological 
Institutes, says, " we are assured of the sal- 
vation of infants, because the free gift has 
come upon all to justification of life, and 
because children are not capable of reject- 



THE EARLY CALLED. 21 

ing that blessing, and must, therefore, de- 
rive benefit from it." 

Reason confirms what Scripture and the 
Church teach. No doctrine of God's word 
is contradictory to reason. It may be above 
our comprehension, or opposed to our in- 
clination, but if susceptible of clear expla- 
nation, it will be found to approve itself 
to every man's conscience in the sight of 
God. But who can say, that it appears 
to him reasonable that infants should be 
damned? He might bow to it in sub- 
mission if clearly shown to be God's will, 
but no argument ever could, or ever did, 
bring the mind to assent and say, " just and 
true are thy ways, thou King of saints," 
in view of such a decision. Common usage 
has established the law that children are 
exempt from penal infliction in our civil 
courts. They may be restrained if vicious, 
they have fallen under the sword of per- 
secution, but a child upon the scaffold, or 
bearing the felon's doom, would awaken 



22 THE EARLY CALLED. 

the indignation of a whole community. 
Now, the principles of justice are ever the 
same ; and shall man be more merciful than 
his Maker ? Nay, even the brutes, by that 
instinct which the Creator has implanted 
within them, seem to show God's regard 
for children, for domestic animals mani- 
fest greater fondness and forbearance to- 
wards them, than towards those who are 
older ; and even such as are fierce and mis- 
chievous will rarely attack them, but often 
caress and protect them. Here then, as 
everywhere else, God's word commends 
itself to our understanding, and confirms 
our reasonable hopes. We could not be- 
lieve that any little one would be lost for- 
ever ; we are not required so to do. We 
would fain hope all will be saved : we are 
assured so it shall be. We have evidence 
of the happiness of deceased infants which 
we have in no other case. The believer 
seemingly most faithful, may have been a 
hypocrite ; and he who has died triumphant, 



THE EARLY CALLED. 23 

may have been self-deceived. Solomon's 
sun rising so bright, may have gone down 
in the clouds of despair ; and Paul may 
have been a castaway: but on every in- 
fant's tombstone we may write Christ's 
own word of promise, more enduring than 
the marble on which it is graven — "Of 
such is the kingdom of heaven." 



24 THE EARLY CALLED, 



CHAPTER III. 

TITLE OF INFANTS TO SALVATION. 

" Neither is there salvation in any other." — Acts, 4 : 12. 

The quotation from the Homily asserts, 
that baptized infants dying in infancy shall 
be saved : shall unbaptized infants be lost ? 
The general argument which proves that 
infants will be saved, proves that all will 
be saved. God will not visit upon a child 
the parent's neglect of duty, and he hath 
sworn that none shall die eternally for a 
parent's sins. When the rite of circumci- 
sion was appointed, none were to receive 
it under eight days old, but we cannot 
think that dying under that age, (as some 
suppose David's child did, which died on 
the seventh day,) they are lost, and conse- 
quently, must believe that the sacrament 



THE EARLY CALLED. 25 

was only " generally necessary," as our cat- 
echism asserts of Christian sacraments, not 
indispensable to salvation. Nor does our 
Church suppose that unbaptized infants will 
be lost. The office of Christian burial, ac- 
cording to the rubric which precedes it, is not 
to be used for unbaptized adults ; whence, 
of course, it follows that it should be used 
for infants dying without baptism, which 
amounts to an expression of faith on the part 
of the Church, that the omission will not 
be visited upon them. The word " adults" 
was inserted in the American revision ; but 
though the service cannot be used for in- 
fants by the English rubric, " this provi- 
sion," says Bishop Brownell, " was not 
originally adopted for the punishment of 
the infants, who are incapable of any crime, 
but to deter parents from neglecting to 
have them baptized." We may add, also, 
the expression in the office for the baptism 
of adults, which speaks of the great ne- 
cessity of this sacrament, " where it may he 



26 THE EARLY' CALLED. 

had" implying, that in the judgment of the 
Church there may be cases where it is 
not indispensable to salvation. Archbishop 
Seeker says, " and even these two (i. e. 
sacraments) our Church very charitably 
teaches us not to look upon as indispensa- 
bly, but as generally necessary to salvation. 
Out of which general necessity we are 
to except those particular cases where 
believers in Christ either have not the 
means of performing their duty in respect to 
the sacraments, or are innocently ignorant 
of it, or even excusably mistaken about it." 
This agrees perfectly with God's word, 
which says, " He that belie veth and is bap- 
tized shall be saved, but he that believeth 
not" — it is not added, and is not baptized, 
— " shall be damned." How perfectly ac- 
cordant is our prayer-book with God's word 
in the smallest particulars, and what a 
treasure of sound theology is contained 
therein! If all the books in the world 
were to be destroyed, except the Bible and 



THE EARLY CALLED. 27 

one other, we would say let that other be 
the Book of Common Prayer, for it contains, 
not only the best forms of devotion, but 
the best commentary on the Scriptures, 
and the best summary of the faith of the 
Church in all ages, which can anywhere 
be found. 

Still, however, let none suppose that the 
neglect of infant baptism will go unpun- 
ished. Christ will not appoint a sacrament 
of admission to his Church for infants, and 
be content to have it slighted. If the pun- 
ishment fall not upon the child, it may 
upon the parent. God met Moses, his 
servant, commissioned for the deliverance 
of Israel, on his way to execute that great 
work, and sought to slay him, because he 
had omitted to circumcise his child, and 
his life was saved only by the hasty per- 
formance of that rite, by Zipporah his 
wife. Will he not visit the careless Chris- 
tian, who neglects to dedicate his child to 
God in baptism ? The consciences of be- 



28 THE EARLY CALLED. 

reaved parents testify that he will, for how 
many have long grieved over that slighting 
of the sacrament, when it was too late to 
repair it ! That remorse shows that pun- 
ishment must follow contempt for Christ's 
ordinance ; yea, is itself a punishment. 
Did we oftener trace up our afflictions to 
their cause, as they are traced in Scripture. 
we might see that our sicknesses, like that 
of Moses, or the deaths of our children, 
were divine chastisements upon our slight 
of sacraments. You would shudder, Chris- 
tian, at the idea that any little one should 
be excluded from heaven; yet you will 
suffer the door of the Church on earth to 
stand open to your offspring, and cruelly 
keep them from entering. Yea, while you 
acknowledge that Christ is ready in that 
sacrament to take them up in his arms and 
bless them, you will not bring them to him, 
but delay, on frivolous excuses, year after 
year, till death remove them, without even 
the poor pretence, that you may plead in 



THE EARLY CALLED. 29 

your own ease, of want of preparation and 
of unworthiness. If they have died, or 
should die unbaptized, you may, indeed, 
hope that they are saved, but only because 
God is more merciful than you. They are 
saved, as the heathen, through uncovenant- 
ed mere}*, when, but for you, they might 
have borne the seal of the covenant upon 
their forehead, and gone up to the fold in 
heaven, as lambs with their Shepherd's 
name upon them. Wo to the minister 
who shall attempt to comfort you by assu- 
ring you that such neglect is of little con- 
sequence ! The only comfort under the re- 
membrance of it, is such as you can find 
in confessing your sin to God, and imploring 
mercy and forgiveness. 

We doubt not that unbaptized infants 
are saved, because their title to everlast- 
ing life, like their right to baptism, stands, 
not in the faith of parents, but in Christ's 
gift to themselves. Many speak of the 
salvation of children as if they were saved 
3* 



30 THE EARLY CALLED. 

through their own merits ; and that, as a 
matter of course, they would go to heav- 
en on account of their innocence. This is 
a great mistake. Even if they deserve 
not punishment, they have done nothing to 
purchase eternal life ; so that, if it be made 
their own, it must be through the gift of 
another. And such is the teaching of 
Scripture. None from earth are found in 
glory, but such as ascribe salvation to the 
Lamb. There is depravity in the heart of 
a babe, that can be taken away only by 
the blood and Spirit of Jesus. There is 
that moral taint, which, like the blighting 
excrescence on the tree, must be removed 
in those which are early transplanted, as 
well as in those which remain ; or, with in- 
creased growth, it will increase to ruin and 
death in the most favorable soil. Christ's 
blood purchases heaven, and his Spirit re- 
moves corruption from every child in the 
hour of its release from life, to fit it for 
that abode of purity. 



THE EARLY CALLED. 31 

And, by the way, what an argument 
may we draw from hence to encourage the 
hope of a blessing upon our living off- 
spring ! Many will not believe that the 
baptism of infants can do any good, and 
yet must believe, if they believe in the sal- 
vation of such as die, that Christ's blood 
and Spirit are applied to the soul of every 
dying child. If to the dying, why not to 
the living? If to the myriads appointed 
to the grave the great blessings of atone- 
ment and regeneration may be secured in 
all their fulness, why not to others of the 
same age appointed to live ? Will the 
gardener bestow pains on the shoot which 
he transplants, and not be ready to care 
equally for that which is to remain for fruit 
in his own garden ? To the living infant, 
we must believe, Christ stands ready to 
impart all that he does to those which are 
taken away. And to the latter we know 
that he gives his atoning sacrifice, and re- 
generating Spirit ; therefore in baptism he 



32 THE EARLY CALLED. 

may, and to such as are brought to it 
aright he will, often communicate the 
same blessings in all their fulness. And 
were there faith on the part of those who 
present them, they would find the appoint- 
ments of Christ no mere empty form. 

Through the blood of Jesus, then, and 
not their own purity, infants are admitted 
to heaven. Newton thinks "that those 
who die in infancy may be that exceeding 
great multitude of all people, nations, and 
languages, mentioned, Rev. 7 : 9, in dis- 
tinction from the visible body of professing 
believers, who are marked in their fore- 
heads, and openly known to be the Lord's." 
However this may be, they are the pur- 
chase of Christ's blood, and let us not pre- 
sume to rob Jesus of his glory, by imagin- 
ing, that they stand there in their own 
righteousness. Ah ! how many little ones 
have learned the alphabet of praise from 
Christ himself, and are now shouting Ho- 
sanna to the Son of David in the heaven- 



THE EARLY CALLED. 33 

ly temple ! They give glory to the Re- 
deemer. Let us glorify him, that, through 
the riches of his grace, such countless 
numbers, without incurring the fearful risk 
of probation, are admitted to eternal bless- 
edness. 



34 THE EARLY CALLED. 



CHAPTER IV. 

AGE OF ACCOUNTABILITY. 

" And your children, which in that day had no know- 
ledge between good and evil, they shall go in thither, and 
unto them will I give it, and they shall possess it." — 
Deut. 1 : 39. 

It has been shown that all infants will 
be saved. But another inquiry arises, who 
shall be included under this class, or when 
does accountability commence ? 

Many have an unreasonable fear of such 
questions. If, indeed, they are proposed in 
the spirit of vain curiosity, as by the man 
who asked our Lord whether " there be 
few that are saved," they are deserving 
of reproof: but our Lord himself answer- 
ed that question on another occasion, say- 
ing, there are few that find the strait and 
narrow way ; so that, it was the spirit of 



THE EARLY CALLED, 35 

the man, rather than the inquiry, which 
was reproved. We cannot avoid such 
questions ; nor is it a vain speculation, 
when death has entered our own families, 
and taken away a dear child, to think of 
its probable fate in the unknown world ; 
nor can we resist the forming some con- 
clusions in our own minds as to its ac- 
countability. If a company of prisoners 
were going forward to trial, and one were 
thoughtlessly to speculate on the chances 
of their escape, that would betray heart- 
less levity ; if he were to ask, in a captious 
mood, whether all these poor wretches must 
be condemned, that would manifest a re- 
bellious spirit : but if, with all confidence 
in the equity of the law and the justice of 
the judge, and with perfect submission to 
the decision when pronounced, he were to 
anticipate the probable fate which awaited 
them, and particularly of some of them 
with whom he was connected, this would 
not be inconsistent with his duty as a good 



36 THE EARLY CALLED. 

citizen and subject. God does not desire 
to keep us ignorant of the decisions of the 
great day, nor to have them fall unexpect- 
edly upon us, like the thunder in a clear 
sky. The design of revelation is to make 
known to us the rule of proceedings in that 
day : so clearly, in our own case, that we 
may forestall our doom ; and clear, in the 
case of others, in proportion as knowledge 
will affect our duty to them or our happi- 
ness. Let us, with reverence, then, use the 
hints we may gather from Scripture, upon 
the inquiry, when does accountability com- 
mence ? Hints are all that we can expect 
to find ; for it would be as impossible to 
settle the ever-varying period, as to settle 
when the sun rises to those occupying 
places of a different height on a mountain, 
which must depend upon their position. 
The general rule seems clear, that, to those 
who see the Sun of righteousness, and re- 
ject his light, the blackness of darkness is 
reserved forever. 



THE EAftLY CALLED. 37 

That which was spoken by Moses, in 
reference to the land of Canaan, may be 
applied in this case. " Your children 
which in that day" of life " had no know- 
ledge between good and evil, they shall go 
in thither, and unto them will I give it, and 
they shall possess it." " To know to refuse 
the evil and choose the good," and " to have 
the senses exercised by use to discern both 
good and evil," are scriptural expressions 
denoting the age of accountability; and, 
as we may infer from the gospel, that no 
sin but the wilful rejection of the Saviour, 
with a knowledge of what is slighted, will 
be visited upon those who have the gospel 
with eternal punishment, we may conclude 
that none but such as are capable of doing 
this have reached that age. This must, 
of course, depend on the natural endow- 
ments and religious advantages of children. 
Some are as much infants at twelve or 
fourteen, as others are at six. We find, 
however, that among the Jews, whose gov- 
4 



38 THE EARLY CALLED. 

ernment was a theocracy, and whose small- 
est concerns were frequently regulated by 
communications from heaven, that twelve 
years was the age at which children were 
supposed to be mature enough to eat the 
Passover, a custom sanctioned by our 
Lord's observance of it. Among Chris- 
tians, few come to confirmation or the 
Lord's table earlier than that ; and all 
presented for baptism under that period, 
are usually presented by their parents, as 
not qualified to act for themselves. Until 
children are capable of making a public 
profession in their own names, they are 
not to be regarded as accountable ; for, 
just so soon as they are of age to perform 
them, they are bound to take these vows 
upon themselves. Now, the practice of 
the Jewish and Christian church, though 
it be not absolutely decisive, may help us 
in forming an opinion on this difficult point. 
It may be urged that children at an 
earlier age have given evidence of piety, 



THE EARLY CALLED. 39 

and therefore accountability commences 
earlier. It is true, that even at four or six 
years we may sometimes see the rudiments 
of Christian character in those who have 
been highly favored with religious privi- 
leges and the influence of divine grace ; 
but the converse does not follow, that all 
who do not give evidence of piety at Rve 
or six are exposed to divine wrath. John 
the Baptist was sanctified from his birth : 
will all be lost that are not sanctified from 
their birth ? Grace and mercy may out- 
speed wrath, and the door of heaven may 
be opened by the hand of young immor- 
tals, ere they have strength to open the 
gate of hell. The young tree may put 
forth perfect fruit in two or three years ; 
and if it did, we should look upon it with 
much pleasure, but should not cut it down 
if for years after it bore no fruit. 

It may be thought that these views will 
tend to relax parental effort, and that if a 
child is safe until a certain period, because 



40 THE EARLY CALLED. 

not accountable, there would be a disposi- 
tion to rest on that security, instead of 
seeking to interest the child personally in 
the great salvation. That would be sin- 
ning because grace abounded. That would 
be suffering the best season for religious 
instruction to pass by unimproved, and the 
mind to become overrun with the tares of 
sin, in the hope that our child would die ere 
it became accountable, when it might 
overlive that period and perish through our 
early neglect. What father would omit 
giving his son an education for business, 
because he might be taken away before 
he was of a business age? If the views 
herein presented are used for any purpose 
other than that of suggesting comfort to 
some who have lost children of eight, ten, 
or twelve years, by the possibility that they 
may be saved, though they have given no 
evidence of personal piety, the abuse must 
rest on those who pervert them. In suggest- 
ing comfort to the bereaved, it is better to err 



THE EARLY CALLED. 41 

on the side of hope, respecting the deceas- 
ed, than of severity ; for the truth, if we 
are mistaken, can better be borne in that 
world where we shall see its full disclo- 
sures, with strength to bear them. 

And should a child, in reading these re- 
marks, be encouraged in neglect of God, 
because we held out the hope that some, 
with small advantages, may have had the 
age of accountability greatly extended, 
that child should remember, that if old 
enough to form the deliberate purpose of 
putting off attention to religion, it is also 
old enough to embrace the offers of the 
gospel, and, consequently, has become ac- 
countable, and in danger of God's wrath 
if the work of salvation is delayed. 

If children of that age are not sometimes 
saved as irresponsible, then there is a great 
sin resting upon the Church, for thousands 
die under that period, and yet there are 
fewer professing Christians in all the years 
preceding the age of fourteen, than in any 
4* 



42 THE EARLY CALLED. 

one or two succeeding. We shut them 
out from a public confession of Christ in 
his Church on earth, and virtually, at least, 
discourage them with the idea that they 
are not old enough, and yet suppose that 
they will be shut out of heaven for not 
acting here as accountable beings. Truly, 
the case of little children is pitiable indeed, 
if such be their fate. Let none blame the 
expression of a hope, that many under 
twelve or fourteen may be saved, as irre- 
sponsible, until there be such a change in 
Christian sentiment as will lead us to draw 
them out as responsible agents just as early 
as we suppose responsibility commences. 

It may be that anxiety to enlarge the 
hope of salvation for little children may 
have led into error in these views ; but if 
so, is it not an error to which God will be 
merciful ? He himself has taught us to hope 
largely for children. He has awakened 
expectations for our tender offspring which 
heathenism never knew. He not only 



THE EARLY CALLED. 43 

spared the six-score thousand infants of 
Nineveh, but for their sake was loth to 
inflict upon the idolaters thereof the tem- 
poral destruction to which they were justly 
obnoxious. If he was so merciful in in- 
flicting temporal death, which comes alike 
to all, will he not be more merciful in ad- 
judging eternal death, which comes not 
promiscuously, but according to his own 
decrees ? He alone can decide when ac- 
countability commences, but surely he will 
not condemn us, if hope enlarge the limit 
even a little beyond his infinite mercy, if 
we maintain submission to his will, and 
strive to the utmost to train our children, 
while spared to us, for his service and 
glory. 

But let it be remembered in this connec- 
tion, that there is something better than 
the vague hope of irresponsibility upon 
which we may, if faithful, rest for comfort 
in the removal of our children. Their 
souls are given us to save, almost be}*ond 



44 THE EARLY CALLED. 

the possibility of doubt. God, in his provi- 
dence, generally makes the power to bless 
commensurate with power. If he renders 
us instrumental in giving birth to immor- 
tal beings, he will enable us to secure for 
them a blessed immortality ; and no one 
would desire to be the author of existence 
upon any other terms. Accordingly, we 
have the positive assurance that a child 
trained up in the way he should go will 
not depart from it, and are taught that the 
promise is to us and to our children. Not- 
withstanding the oft-quoted remark, that 
the offspring of pious parents are frequently 
most wicked, which may, generally, be re- 
solved into some very evident defect in 
parental piety ; we may assert, that it is 
doubtful whether faithfulness on the part 
of parents ever failed in securing the sal- 
vation of children. Let the child be dedi- 
cated and brought into the covenant with 
God in baptism ; let it be the chief aim of 
parents to carry out that act of consecra- 



THE EARLY CALLED. 45 

tion to God in the education of their little 
ones ; let this aim be so sincere that God 
may see that it lies nearest their hearts, and 
that our children may see it too ; let them 
grow up under the influence of consistent 
example ; let the earnest prayer of faith be 
offered for them, and we should have evi- 
dence that the promises of God were ful- 
filled, and that their souls were given to us, 
as well as our own, to save. " It is im- 
possible," the mother of St. Augustin was 
told, " that the child of many prayers and 
tears should be lost." Let us leave to the 
heathen and the unfaithful the cold hope 
of non-accountability — meeter for them, 
than for the Christian ; or let us indulge 
it only for those of our offspring that may 
have been taken away from us ; but let us 
seek rather, for those that remain, the hum- 
ble trust of the faithful believer in a cov- 
enant-keeping God, who is ready to include 
our offspring also in the blessings of the 
covenant. 



46 THE EARLY CALLED. 



CHAPTER V. 

CONSOLATIONS IN THE DEATH OF INFANTS. 

" Rachel weeping for her children, refused to be com- 
forted for her children, because they were not. Thus 
saith the Lord, Refrain thy voice from weeping, and 
thine eyes from tears." — Jer. 31 : 15, 16. 

With the assurance in our minds, that 
our little ones have been taken by death 
to everlasting blessedness, it would seem 
as if no further consolation could be asked 
or needed. Yet God has vouchsafed other 
comforts to bereaved parents. 

There are three periods of human life, 
when, of all others, it would seem desira- 
ble to die. It is good to depart as the lit- 
tle child does, having become capable of 
an immortal existence, and been received 
into covenant with God by baptism, and 
then, without tasting the trials of mortal- 
ity, or incurring the dangers of probation. 



THE EARLY CALLED. 47 

to enter at once upon the heavenly inherit- 
ance. It is good to die as the young Chris- 
tian does, having remained to secure, by a 
personal acceptance, the blessings of the 
great atonement ; and then, without fur- 
ther trial, and ere the tender connexions of 
a maturer age are formed, to be called to a 
bright reward. And it is good to die as 
the old believer does, having fought the 
good fight, and finished the course, with 
the relaxing of earthly ties, which added 
years gives, and the longing after heaven 
which experience of earth's wretchedness 
inspires. If the little infant loses some of 
the satisfaction of the old believer, it loses 
also many of his conflicts ; and we may 
be well content that our children, if God 
so wills, should be called to receive the 
crown, without the agony and uncertainty 
of the race. 

In the pains of a departure from life, 
they suffer comparatively little. They 
have no remorse for the past to disturb 



48 THE EARLY CALLED. 

their sick-bed, nor fear for the future. 
They have no disquieting consciousness of 
an approaching separation from friends. 
All they endure is the present pain, and 
that not usually severe. The stings of a 
guilty conscience have never disturbed 
their peace ; the sorrows of this wicked 
world have been almost untasted ; they 
have lived unconscious of the spiritual 
desolations of earth, or of that burden of 
depravity and wo under which our whole 
creation groaneth ; they have known none 
of the cares and toils of providing for their 
wants, and the smiles and love of friends 
have been their portion, unmingled with 
the coldness of strangers or the enmity of 
foes ; and then, just as they were approach- 
ing that age when they would become ca- 
pable of wilfully rejecting the Saviour, and 
the wave of life's sorrows was breaking at 
their feet, they were mercifully removed. 
As the little unfledged bird, whose nest is 
built over the serpent's den, feeds, and 



THE EARLY CALLED. 49 

chirps, and flutters, unconscious of the de- 
struction which yawns beneath, until, at 
last, it soars away towards heaven, leaving 
its creeping foes balked of their prey, while 
the fond parents, exulting, follow its flight 
from dangers which they had seen, and 
from which they knew not how their little 
one would escape ; so have our nestlings 
soared above the evils of life, so do our 
hearts follow them with joy to their native 
skies. 

" God took thee in his mercy, 
A lamb untasked, untried ; 
He fought the fight for thee, 
He gained the victory, 
And thou art sanctified." 

And the remembrances of infants early 
snatched away are pleasant to us. In the 
older members of our family, though pos- 
sessing, upon the whole, as we trust, Chris- 
tian character, there was so much of in- 
firmity and sin, that we, who best knew 
them, cannot sever these recollections en- 
5 



50 THE EARLY CALLED. 

tirely from those which are pleasant, upon 
their removal. But infancy and childhood 
are usually bright and joyous ; and we look 
back upon the season when they were be- 
fore us, as upon the flight of something 
heavenly across our evil path. " Three 
things," says the Rev. Dr. Henry, " appear 
to be uninjured by the fall — the song of 
birds, the beauty of flowers, and the smile 
of infancy ; for it is difficult to conceive 
how either of these could have been more 
perfect had man remained holy ; as if God 
would leave us something pure to remind 
us of the paradise we have lost, and to 
point us to that which we may regain."* 
No doubt, the sweetness and innocence of 



* I quote the above, as it was uttered in conversation 
by my friend, Dr. C. S. Henry. When I wrote this 
chapter I simply referred it to him : but he tells me, that 
this is giving him something more than his due ; for 
that, although the expression is his, yet it was suggested 
to him by a beautiful line of Keble's, in which he calls 
the flowers of the field " relics of Eden." He says I 
must therefore print the stanzas from Kcble which con. 



THE EARLY CALLED. 51 

this tender age have done much towards 
civilizing and softening the rugged nature 
of man ; and society would have been far 
more rude, had it not been for this inter- 
posing link to draw back from the deprav- 
ity of earth to the purity of heaven. 

It is true, these recollections are tender 
and heart-stirring, but not gloomy or de- 
tain the line. I am sure my readers will thank me for 
putting into my pages any thing so exquisite. 

Relics ye are of Eden's bowers, 
As pure, as fragrant, and as fair, 

As when ye crowned the sunshine hours 
Of happy wanderers there. 

Fallen all beside — the world of life, 

How is it stained with fear and strife ! 

In Reason's world what storms are rife, 
What passions rage and glare ! 

But cheerful and unchanged the while, 

Your first and perfect form ye show, 

The same that won Eve's matron smile 

In the world's opening glow. 
The stars of heaven a course are taught 
Too high above our human thought ; — 
Ye may be found if ye are sought, 
And as we gaze, we know. 



52 THE EARLY CALLED. 

pressing. The image of our departed 
ones, as they sat side by side with broth- 
ers and sisters at the table, or as they 
walked hand in hand to school or church, 
or played with each other, or lay folded in 
each other's arms as they slept, comes up 
to view ; — we think of their little songs, 
or, perchance, of their verse spelt out in 
turn at family devotions, happy when one 
so short and easy was found that they 
might read it ; we recall their sweet voices 
lisping out the prayer for infancy and age 
our Lord has given ; we see them follow- 
ing our steps, clinging to our knees, asking 
to be taken up, and clasping us with their 
little arms, — dear, dear recollections of the 
past, multiplying upon us, and now, only 
treasures of the memory, no more to be 
ours in actual possession ; and then, as 
we turn to the vacant chair at table, to the 
cradle, or the crib, without the little happy 
face that once nestled there, which we 
have so often stooped to kiss — to the gar- 



THE EARLY CALLED. 53 

merits worn, and playthings stored in their 
pockets as left by them — and then think of 
the cold, cold grave, and of our darlings 
mouldering there, the tear must fall, the 
heart melt at the loss. But there is no bit- 
terness in these tears. They are not like 
those shed over a profligate child cut down 
in his sins. We weep, because they have 
been so pleasant to us. Let it comfort us, 
that they were so pleasant, and that there 
is no stirring of shame or despair in the 
fountains of our grief. 
5* 



54 THE EARLY CALLED. 



CHAPTER VI. 

CONSOLATIONS IN THE DEATH OF INFANTS. 

" And there is hope in thine end, saith the Lord, that 
thy children shall come again to their own border." — 
Jer. 31 : 17. 

It is not unfrequently the fact, that 
children early removed are uncommonly 
pleasant in life, and many times give more 
evidence of piety and fondness for religious 
duties than their brothers and sisters who 
are spared. This may be, in some instan- 
ces, only the imaginings of parental fond- 
ness, heightened in its colorings by the 
dark ground of bereavement on which they 
are spread ; but in others it is, undoubtedly, 
a reality. God, to comfort us in the recol- 
lection of these early developments of 
piety, causes the bud of promise, which he 
means to crop, to expand most rapidly; or 



THE EARLY CALLED. 55 

selects for the bowers of paradise the flow- 
er most fully open, that its sweet fragrance 
may linger awhile upon earth to cheer us. 
We recall their thoughtful dispositions and 
their solemn questions concerning death, 
and heaven, and God ; we think how neigh- 
bors and friends, as they watched the ex- 
hibition of heavenly tempers in them, fore- 
warned us that we should never rear 
them ;* we see them escaping from our 
hands at night, ere half-undressed, to kneel 
down and say their little prayers ; and we 
believe that the grace of God visited their 
hearts thus early, to make assurance dou- 
bly sure to us, " that of such is the king- 
dom of heaven," and we bless his holy 

* " We never hoped to keep her long, 

When but a fairy child, 
With dancing step, and bird-like song, 

And eyes that only smiled ; 
A something shadowy and frail 

Was even in her mirth : 
She looked a flower, that one rough gale 

Might bear away from earth." 



50 THE EARLY CALLED. 

name for the added consolation of this 
thought. 

We look upon the mound which covers 
our little one, or we visit the vault where 
its body reposes, and find comfort there. 
Perhaps its remains lie side by side with 
others cut down in infancy, or among 
kindred and friends who have died in the 
Lord ; and it seems to break the loneliness 
of the grave, as we stand and think of 
them, kindred in life and sleeping together 
in death. Do their released spirits ever 
assemble there, and hover over the clay 
they once inhabited, like a bird revisiting 
its former nest, and preparing to reoccupy 
it, when spring, emblem of the resurrec- 
tion, shall return? Are they so raised 
above mortality, that they find their heav- 
en everywhere — in the cold vault, upon 
the damp grave, as well as in the view- 
less air, or in the world unknown? Do 
they watch us as we visit their tombs? 
does the spirit of our child glide unnoticed 



THE EARLY CALLED. 57 

among parents and kin all the day long ? 
is there still the look of love — the unfelt 
embrace, and all of life but its sensible 
displays and its evils — while we feel not, 
heed not, answer not ? Mysterious world 
of spirits ! we strain our eyes to look upon 
thee as upon the distance, and though 
forms seem to arise before our steady gaze, 
we must wait until further advanced ere 
we can distinguish illusion from reality. 

The Christian doctrine of a resurrection 
of the same body comes to our comfort in 
the death of little ones. It may be asked, 
shall we see the same tiny form, and the 
features of infancy and childhood ? or will 
they be raised perfect in stature, as in 
spirit ? We would see them again just as 
they were ; and yet we associate with a 
form like theirs the idea of weakness and 
imperfection. This, however, may be a 
prejudice of earth. The little form may 
be retained, and yet be a vessel large 
enough to contain the fulness of God's 



58 THE EARLY CALLED. 

blessing, for even here his gifts and grace 
are not measured by size and stature. 
The scriptural idea seems to be, that the 
same body will rise again, so that when 
we meet, we shall know at once that this 
was the inmate of our earthly homes. 
We may carry our little ones in our memo- 
ries, and imagine how they will look when 
we again behold them; not to find, as when 
we have long been separated on earth, 
that they have changed out of all recollec- 
tion, but that they are still the same, 
though beautified and perfected in cherubic 
glory. The child shall appear, we may 
hope, as when cradled in our arms, — only 
those eyes, which then looked up and 
gladdened us, shall shine with a heavenly 
lustre, — that voice, which then was music 
to us, shall have more of the tone of the 
world of sacred song : but we shall know 
at the first glance that this is the little 
form which once sported about our homes, 
which has often, after separation, visited 



THE EARLY CALLED. 59 

us in our dreams, and now in living reality 
is to be clasped in our arms, no more 
to be rent from us. We will await that 
meeting, thankful for the comforting recol- 
lections of the past, and the cheering an- 
ticipations of the fature, which alleviate 
our present bereavement, and with full 
hearts blessing God that so much mercy is 
mingled with the trial. 

That moment of reunion will repay all 
our sorrows. "Should any parent," says 
Dr. Chalmers, "feel softened by the touch- 
ing remembrance of a light that twinkled 
a few short months under his roof, and at 
the end of its little period expired, we can- 
not think that we venture too far when we 
say, that he has only to persevere in the 
faith and in the following of the gospel, 
and that very light will again shine upon 
him in heaven. The blossom which with- 
ered here upon its stalk, has been trans- 
planted there to a place of endurance ; 
and it will there gladden that eye which 



60 THE EARLY CALLED. 

now weeps out the agony of an affection 
that has been sorely wounded ; and in the 
name of Him, who if on earth would have 
wept along with them, do we bid all be- 
lievers to sorrow not even as others who 
have no hope, but to take comfort in the 
thought of that country where there is no 
sorrow and no separation." 

" O, when a mother meets on high 

The babe she lost in infancy, 
Has she not then, for pains and fears — 

The day of wo, the watchful night — 
For all her sorrows, all her tears — 

An overpayment of delight?" 

The intervening process of decay is in- 
deed revolting. We cannot bear to think 
of it. We may have witnessed it. We 
may have opened the tomb where our 
child lay. We may have seen some traces 
of its former self — the cheek yet full, the 
forehead fair, the hair unchanged as it was 
parted on the brow in the coffin ; but the 
eye sunken, the ghastliness of death in- 



THE EARLY CALLED. 61 

creased, and the shroud stained and damp : 
and we may have looked, as who that has 
shuddered at the thought of premature in- 
terment would not, to see if there had been 
any movement; but no, there had been 
none, save the slow motion of decay, that 
gradual sinking down towards the level 
of the earth never to cease until dust min- 
gle with dust in undistinguishable union. 
Let corruption speed its work, for all that 
stage between the yielding of the breath 
and the complete return to dust, is entirely 
in the empire of the grave. There, for a 
season, the body is wholly resigned to its 
power, without any interpositions of mercy 
such as gladden saints below, and without 
any of that fulness of favor which they ex- 
perience above. But when that process 
is completed, and the ashes of mortality 
lie in their original state, then God will 
undertake to build the body from them 
again in the glory of its first creation: as 
the owner of some sacred vessel which had 



62 THE EARLY CALLED. 

been polluted by evil hands, might refuse 
to put it again to a hallowed use, till he 
had cast it into the furnace, reduced it to 
a shapeless mass, and thence formed it 
anew in more than pristine brightness and 
excellence. The preparatory process, let 
the dark earth hide then ; one view of it, 
one imagining of it, will make the Chris- 
tian rest contented till the grave has com- 
pleted its work, and the dust lies motionless, 
awaiting the great Creator's time to be 
remoulded. How many long ages may 
roll ere it stir again ! But the spirit shares 
not the delay, is defiled not by the process, 
has returned to God who gave it. Last, 
of man's compounded nature, to proceed 
from God at the creation, and waiting till 
the body was complete ere it entered ; it is 
first to return to its Maker, and seems to 
spurn a house of decay. Pure spirit ! a 
habitation worthy of thee shall at length 
invite thee to itself, as thine eternal home. 



THE EARLY CALLED. 63 



CHAPTER VII. 

LESSONS OF PROFIT IN THE DEATH OF YOUNG 
CHILDREN. 

" I shall go to him, but he shall not return to me."— 
2 Sam. 12 : 23. 

Our first thought, under affliction, is to 
find comfort, while the primary design of 
God is our profit : just as, under an opera- 
tion, we seek to have our pain soothed, 
while the surgeon's object is our cure. 

If there be any affliction better calcula- 
ted than all others to do us good, it is the 
death of a child. There is so much of 
mercy attending it — such an assurance of 
the happiness of the child — such tender 
ties are severed, and the heart is so soften- 
ed, that they must be stupid indeed who 
derive no benefit from such a bereavement. 
The most profitable trials are those which 
affect us most deeply, but still have the 



64 THE EARLY CALLED. 

greatest consolations attending them; — 
while such as cause us to grieve incon- 
solably are apt to harden, to awaken de- 
spondency, or to lead us to seek our com- 
fort in the world. And there is this union 
of trial and mercy in the removal of young 
children. We cannot rebel against God 
for taking them to heaven, and yet we can- 
not but mourn over our loss : what can we 
do, then, but resolve to live so, that, with 
David, we may say, " I shall go to him, 
though he shall not return to me ?" 

The death of a child is often designed 
to call the attention of an irreligious pa- 
rent to his soul's concerns. Dr. Payson 
has a thought something like this ; " that 
when a shepherd finds the sheep unwilling 
to enter the fold, he sometimes takes up 
the lambs, and places them within, when 
their dams will follow." Creatures of 
sense are we ; so much so, that the idea of 
a child in heaven will often affect the 
heart, even of the Christian, more power- 



THE EARLY CALLED. 65 

fully than that of God's presence, or of 
the holiness and glory of the place. Your 
babe or child, mourning parent, is happy, 
and you will see it again ; but how, and 
where ? Shall it stand at the right hand 
of the Judge, while you are on the left ? 
Will the great gulf be eternally drawn be- 
tween you? And shall you have given 
being to one who is to minister forever be- 
fore the throne, while you associate with 
devils and foul spirits ? God is calling you, 
by the voice of that glorified little one, to 
renounce the world, take up your cross, 
and follow Christ ; and if that move you 
not, what shall prevail 1 Be persuaded by 
it to live so, that you may say with David, 
" I shall go to him, though he may not re- 
turn to me." 

And to a Christian parent, the thought 
of his glorified little ones must be a strong 
incitement and aid to heavenly-minded- 
ness. If the rich man felt a peculiar inter- 
est in his father's house and his five breth- 
6* 



6Q THE EARLY CALLED. 

ren ; if Rachel still hovered near the spot 
where her slaughtered children fell, why- 
may we not hope that our little ones are, 
in spirit, still in the midst of the families 
to which earthly ties bind them ? Ah ! we 
may almost hear their voices calling to us, 
as we slumber in sin, or linger on the way, 
" Father dear, mother, brother, sister, come 
up hither and dwell with us ; — do not sin 
against God, do not grow cold and care- 
less :" and if they could put forth a hand, 
how would they lay hold upon us as the 
angels did upon the lingering patriarch, 
and hasten our flight ! When we thus 
think of them, we would fain be with them. 
But duties yet remain. We seem like a 
man toiling and wearied amid the harvest 
field, but in sight of the home where his 
family and kindred are gathering, one by 
one, to keep some joyous festival, who 
often turns a wistful glance towards them, 
and then bends patiently to his toil, know- 
ing that flip evening will dismiss him to 



THE EARLY CALLED. 67 

their enjoyments, and lending a sturdier 
blow to the work which must be done, ani- 
mated by that homeward glance ; so may 
our view of the glorified lead us to a more 
vigorous discharge of life's duties, and to 
wait patiently " all the days of our appoint- 
ed time, till our change come." 

A lesson of humility is often conveyed 
by the death of little ones. To be child- 
less, is a severe trial ; and to have a 
large family of promising children, like 
olive-plants, round about our table, awa- 
kens feelings of pride and self-compla- 
cency. God, therefore, pursues a middle 
course in his dealings with us, not with- 
holding altogether the blessing of children, 
but taking one or more away, to remind us 
of our dependence, and to check idolatry ; 
as we do not morosely withhold good 
things from our offspring, but recall them, 
when they occupy too much time, or are 
in any way abused. And he who has 
once smarted under such a chastisement, 



68 THE EARLY CALLED. 

will be ready to say thereafter, " These lit- 
tle ones are very dear to me, but I have 
suffered too much, ever again to allow my 
heart to become knit to them, or to make 
them my idols." 

To surviving children, a lesson of profit 
may be drawn from the removal of broth- 
ers or sisters. None can fail to have re- 
marked the impression which seems to be 
made upon them by such a death. Some- 
times, indeed, they appear very thought- 
less ; and sometimes, the flood of tears will 
be succeeded by levity which grates upon 
our feelings, so that we grieve that they 
care so little for their loss : but after all, 
we shall find that they think more of it 
than we are ready to suppose. They will 
have many wondering questions to ask 
about the little brother or sister who has 
gone to paradise ; they will often speak of 
them as with God, and tell us perhaps, in 
the morning, that they dreamed they saw 
their little brother or sister standing by 



THE EARLY CALLED. 69 

their bedside, and looking smilingly upon 
them. Was it a dream, or a reality ? Be- 
fore the eyes of those who, like young 
Samuel, are not old enough to discern a 
spiritual presence, or of those who are too 
far gone in the embraces of death to reveal 
the visits of such visitants, the bright in- 
habitants of other worlds may flit visibly 
and freely. The veil of sense which shuts 
out intercourse with incorporeal intelli- 
gences, may be drawn close only during 
the period of probation when alone it is 
necessary ; and before that period is enter- 
ed, and after it has closed, as the happy 
soul is about to enter upon its reward, the 
film may be drawn aside, as with Elijah's 
servant, so that visions of another world 
may break upon the sight. This may light 
up the smile of cradled infancy, and this 
may leave that sweet expression which is 
sometimes seen on the face of death. In- 
deed, we know that before the tongue loses 
its power of revealing the state of the soul, 



70 THE EARLY CALLED. 

the dying believer will often speak of the 
visible revealing of Christ to him as to 
Stephen, or of the presence and melody of 
angels ; and we can hardly think that God 
leaves him to delusion in that hour of truth. 
It may be, then, that the little one sees a 
spirit flit in reality before the eye ; and 
though, like Samuel, it be unable to recog- 
nise the voice, it becomes maturer piety to 
interpret, and to show them how they may 
profit by their conceptions of the glorified, 
whether imaginary or real. Speak to them 
often, Christian parents, of their departed 
brother or sister, as still living ; point them 
to their happy state ; let no later-born take 
the name of the deceased as of one lost, 
but regard it as one of your family still, and 
aim to have it the impression upon all that 
you are living to meet again at God's right 
hand ; as in a journey you would expect, at 
its end, that those who had gone by an 
earlier conveyance, and those who travel- 
led with you, would be re-united. Let this 



THE EARLY CALLED. 71 

be the impression, and the business in all 
your family arrangements. Let the prayer 
with which the corner-stone of the domes- 
tic economy is laid, be daily breathed forth 
as in the Marriage Service, " that we may 
so live together in this life, that in the 
world to come we may have life everlast- 

Big." 

Important defects in family government 
may be seen and corrected, under such be- 
reavements. From your over-indulgence, 
that child taken away may have already 
developed evil tempers, which, although 
they affect not the hope of its salvation, 
may have made you tremble as to its fate 
if life had been spared, Or you may dis- 
cover the opposite fault of sternness and 
severity, and recall harsh expressions and 
needless correction, which now pain in the 
remembrance. Because God saw you were 
unfit for the care of that child, he may 
have removed it, or to qualify you better 
for your duty to those that remain. 



72 THE EARLY CALLED. 

Some special means of deepening the 
lesson of profit which such interesting 
providences were designed to convey, seem 
desirable. If the day of the week, or of 
the month, on which the little one died, be 
made a day of special prayer in the closet 
and at the domestic altar, for a blessing 
upon the family relation, that may be found 
perhaps as effectual as any means, in per- 
petuating all that is good and comforting 
in our affliction, and in sparing ourselves 
the need of another chastisement to en- 
force the same lessons. 



THE EARLY CALLED. 73 



CHAPTER VIII. 

GOD GLORIFIED IN YOUNG CHILDREN. 

" Out of the mouths of babes and sucklings thou hast 
perfected praise."— St. Matt. 21 : 16. 

The death of young children is calculated 
to turn the thoughts more attentively and 
admiringly to the dealings of God with 
them, and to the various ways in which he 
perfects in them his praise. 

It is to the glory of God that there is 
such a state as that of infancy and child- 
hood. There would be but a gloomy pros- 
pect to those who desire to do good to their 
fellow-men, and to instruct and elevate 
them, if there were no more inviting field 
of labor than is presented by the mind and 
heart of the matured. What men are, 
both in an intellectual and moral view, 
when they have attained to manhood, they 
7 



74 THE EARLY CALLED. 

generally are through life; and there is 
very little hope of effecting any great 
change after that period, except through 
the influence of earlier impressions. And 
this should excite our thankfulness that 
there is a more susceptible age. We look 
at the hardened parent growing every year 
more obdurate under the calls of mercy, 
and sigh at the hopelessness of the effort to 
do him good : we turn to his children, and 
rejoice that there is greater encouragement 
to labor for them. We look at the blinded 
nations of paganism, and the effort to up- 
root their errors seems like attempting to 
clear the forest of the growth of centuries : 
we turn to their children, and it is compar- 
atively like removing the undergrowth of 
one or two years. And at the same time, 
this most susceptible age is most accessible 
to Christian influence. The ungodly pa- 
rent is willing that we should pour all the 
scriptural truth we can into the soul of 
his child. The heathen generally consent 



THE EARLY CALLED. 75 

very readily to place their children in the 
school of the missionary ; and even the 
infidel is sometimes willing that his little 
ones should be educated in the religion 
which he derides. 

God perfects his praise again in little 
children, by often making them powerful 
instruments of good to others. They do 
this, not only by the softening influence of 
their innocence and artlessness upon so- 
ciety, but in other ways. We can hardly 
take up a religious paper without reading 
of some instance in which the appeals of 
these little pleaders for God have been in- 
strumental in the conversion of souls. The 
intemperate father has been reclaimed by 
the truth-disclosing tongue of his child. 
The sunday scholar applies some lesson 
learnt at school to the inmates of his home, 
and they are seen, conscience-smitten, at- 
tending in the house of God, bending at 
the family altar, and yielding their souls to 
the influence of piety, realizing the beauti- 



76 THE EARLY CALLED. 

ful image of prophecy, of the lion and the 
bear, and the little child leading them. In 
one of the darkest periods of the reforma- 
tion, when Luther, Melancthon, and others, 
were assembled under great dejection of 
spirit to consult upon what should be done, 
Melancthon retired from the council under 
the deepest depression, but in a few mo- 
ments returned again with a countenance 
beaming with confidence and joy ; and 
when all were surprised at the change, he 
told them he had just seen a sight which 
assured him of success ; he had seen some 
little children engaged in prayer for the 
reformation, whom their mothers, who 
had assembled for the same purpose, had 
brought together, and he was assured such 
prayers would be heard of God. Courage 
in the needful hour for the greatest work 
ever accomplished by uninspired men was 
thus breathed into the soul through infants' 
prayers. God delights in accomplishing 
his purposes by instruments which will not 



THE EARLY CALLED. 77 

defraud him of the praise, and, therefore, 
he often passes by those who, if successful, 
would feel that their own wisdom had 
secured success, and preaches the comfort- 
ing or converting word by such little mes- 
sengers of mercy who will arrogate to 
themselves none of the honor. 

But especially does God perfect his praise 
by the removal of so many little children 
at an early age. We look into the abodes 
of poverty and see what a legacy of wretch- 
edness the children thereof are likely to 
inherit, and we cannot but feel content and 
even thankful when we hear that they 
have been called away in infancy to a 
brighter inheritance in heaven. We look 
to the children of the rich, and reflect that 
they are likely to grow up amid the temp- 
tations and snares of wealth, from which, 
Christ himself has said, it is almost impos- 
sible to escape, and we cannot but be 
satisfied when they too are called to that 
world whose riches do not ensnare the 
7* 



78 THE EARLY CALLED. 

soul. We look on the offspring of the de- 
praved, and feel it to be a mercy when the 
grave hides them from the blight of an 
evil example. We look at the children of 
Christian parents, and are resigned, when 
we know that such often harden themselves 
in sin, to have them removed from the best 
parental care and influence on earth to 
the care of a Father in heaven. We look 
at the toils and sorrows of life, and it 
seems a mercy that so many millions are 
stopped in the pathway of existence, ere 
their shoulders are bowed down under the 
burden. 

What an amount of sin and suffering 
is shut out by the closing of infants' 
graves ! How much parental anguish pre- 
vented ! How often the tears of fond re- 
membrance which fall upon those graves, 
might have been changed for those of dis- 
appointed hope, and of despairing solicitude 
for their eternal welfare ! Shall we not 
acknowledge, then, the goodness of that 



THE EARLY CALLED. 79 

hand which lightens our world so much of 
its burden of sin and sorrow ? 

But it is more especially in the assurance 
that the souls of departed infants are happy 
in heaven, that God's name is glorified. 
We think of that gloomy prison of the lost, 
and shudder to ask whom it contains, and 
how many it contains ; but there is comfort 
in the thought that it holds not one spirit 
of all the countless little ones that have 
left the world. We look towards the 
realms of light, and can see, not with the 
eye of imagination, but of faith, written 
upon the walls thereof, " Suffer the little 
children to come unto me, for of such is the 
kingdom of heaven." Have you ever thank- 
ed God, Christian, that salvation has been 
made certain to so many myriads ? If not, 
do so now, for it is one of the glories of 
God's moral government, which should call 
forth much of our admiring praise. More 
than half of our race are called away be- 
fore they have attained the age of account- 



SO THE EARLY CALLED. 

ability. To all these, although partakers 
by nature in man's corruption, Christ gives 
his atoning blood and cleansing spirit with- 
out so much as an act of faith to secure it ; 
and of his own free and sovereign mercy 
he removes such multitudes before their 
immortality can be rendered wretched by 
sin. Whatever may be the fate of the 
tribes of paganism, which have gone down 
thick as the leaves of autumn to the 
grave, their children, even those of them 
which have been sacrificed to devils, are 
happy with God. Whatever may be the 
doom of past generations and ages, we 
confidently hope, that as no husbandman 
would suffer the wheat to stand where the 
tares were more than the grain, so, includ- 
ing the multitudes taken away in early 
life, God will reap for the garners in heav- 
en a large proportion of the human race. 
Death and hell will be gloriously balked of 
their prey. When we stand in the pres- 
ence of God hereafter, and see those my- 



THE EARLY CALLED, 81 

riads of souls of infants and children swell- 
ing the note of praise, mysteries of divine 
love and goodness in the removal of so 
many of them will break upon our view 
which we never think of here ; and then 
we shall feel indeed, that " out of the 
mouths of babes and sucklings God has 
perfected his praise." 

God is good and glorious in his dealings 
with the youngest of our race, and he is 
good and just to all. Shall we feel that 
he is partial in his dealings ? Shall we 
think that his loving-kindness is locked up 
except to babes and sucklings ? No, it ex- 
tends to all. There is mercy in the re- 
moval of so many myriads in infancy ; 
there is mercy also in sparing myriads for 
manhood ; yea, if we will improve it, 
greater mercy than favored childhood ever 
knows. Happy are they that are taken in 
the morning of life to heaven, but happier 
are they who are removed at the evening 
of a long day of usefulness in our sinful 



82 THE EARLY CALLED. 

world. Glorious is our God in the midst 
of redeemed infants, but more glorious in 
the midst of martyrs, apostles, and those 
who have trod the path of self-denial, 
conflict, and suffering upon earth. We 
value the tender shoot which is trans- 
planted from the nursery into our garden, 
but we value more the well-grown tree 
which already begins to blossom and bear, 
if it perish not in the removal. Let us not 
feel that God is exclusively good to the 
babe and suckling, and wish we had shared 
the lot of such as die in infancy. It will 
be our own fault and folly if we do not 
taste richer mercy than they. Out of our 
mouths God may, in a nobler sense, perfect 
his praise on earth and in heaven. Let us 
thank him for his goodness to them ; let us 
thank him also that in the service of Christ, 
in spreading his gospel and saving souls, 
his goodness has reserved for us, if we 
will secure them, higher joys, brighter re- 
wards, and greater glory to his own great 



THE EARLY CALLED. 83 

name. Let us thank God that while the 
disembodied spirit of the child stands before 
the throne rejoicing in its own existence, 
we may stand there hereafter rejoicing in 
the like existence, and, with many more, to 
bless God forever, that we lived and were 
the instruments of rendering their existence 
blessed. 



THE REAPER AND THE FLOWERS. 

There is a reaper, whose name is Death, 

And with his sickle keen 
He reaps the bearded grain at a breath. 

And the flowers that grow between. 

; Shall I have naught that is fair," saith he — 
" Have naught but the bearded grain ? 
Though the breath of these flowers is sweet to rne, 
I will give them all back again." 

He gazed at the flowers with tearful eyes, 

He kissed their drooping leaves ; 
It was for the Lord of paradise 

He bound them in his sheaves, 



84 THE EARLY CALLED. 

" My Lord has need of these flowerets gay,'* 

The reaper said, and smiled ; 
" Dear tokens of the earth are they, 

Where He was once a child. 

" They shall all bloom in fields of light, 
Transplanted by my care ; 
And saints upon their garments white 
These sacred blossoms wear." 

And the mother gave, in tears and pain, 

The flowers she most did love ; 
She knew that she should find them all again 

In the fields of light above. 

O, not in cruelty, not in wrath, 

The reaper came that day ; 
'Twas an angel visited the green earth 

And took the flowers away. 

Voices of the Night. 



Deacidified using the Bookkeeper proces 
Neutralizing agent: Magnesium Oxide 
Treatment Date: Nov. 2005 

PreservationTechnologiei 

A WORLD LEADER IN PAPER PRESERVATIO 

1 1 1 Thomson Park Drive 
Cranberry Township, PA 16066 
(724)779-2111 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 



014 727 726 A 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 



029 822 633 9 



